Nissan Z-prototype's rear teased ahead of unveiling

By JAY WONG | 3 September 2020


TOKYO: An interesting sketch has been floating about on the Internet that's supposedly released by a high-ranking Nissan employee. The subject matter is the upcoming Nissan Z sports car.

The sketch, released by Nissan global design senior vice president Alfonso Albaisa, is reminiscent of a 300ZX's rear light clusters but the lines heading towards the front of the vehicle seem to  be "inline" with what the future Z-prototype will be.

The Z car, which will be the successor to the 370Z, will be unveiled at a later date. What will be shown on Sept 16 will instead be a prototype for Nissan engineers to realise in the near future.



What's expected so far is that the exterior will bring back some "retro" design cues while the interior is set for a more modern look.

Many are hopeful that the new Z-prototype will be a close-to-production version.

There's also talk about a potent 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 engine finding its way under the hood to provide some 400hp of performance - allowing it to wear the "400Z" moniker.

Nissan Power of Z - 01


To manage power delivery, most likely to the rear, a manual transmission could be in the mix to be offered alongside an automatic or simply one or the either.

The next big question is where Nissan will be sourcing the 400Z's chassis from.

Most likely, the Japanese automaker will tap Infiniti's architecture and if they do, that would mean the Q60 would be the most likely of candidates.

Right now, Nissan is in no position to "burn" cash  in order to develop a vehicle from the ground up. But if they go with the Infiniti-route, it's most probably that we'll be able to see the Q60 400Z sooner than later. Fingers crossed for 2021.

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